CH 24

「Mixing medicinal herbs, huh? How interesting. You can’t get the effects from an herb mixture if you combine the wrong ingredients or if the amounts are incorrect, after all. That means the food Yuuri made is a mixture that can produce buff effects.」

Eh?

Mixture?

No, no. All I did was cook, not to mention the amount of ingredients I used were all measured by eye too.

「This is an incredible discovery! We have to report it to the guild right away!」

Incredible discovery?

Report? Ah, that makes sense. We should get people to start picking up the black and pale yellow potions they didn’t before because they thought the potions were bad.

「Yuuri, let the guild purchase your mixture recipes. You will get a usage fee whenever somebody uses your recipe.」

He wants me to sell the recipes?

But, it’s not like I created those recipes…

Besides, I could make even more delicious meals if I had a bigger variety of ingredients…

Selling the recipes and making money off of them even though I wasn’t the one who thought of them was a little too… It felt similar to plagiarized tweets on the internet, or seeing other people’s work being used without permission. It felt wrong…

As I was hesitating,

「You should go make a contract with the guild immediately.」

Eh?

I had to go to the guild?

「You mean, I have to leave here and go to the guild?」

I looked at the children.

Once Bryce-kun leaves, only Kirika-chan and Kurtz-kun, the young children, will be left behind in this hut.

「No, I won’t go… I have to stay here and level up…」

「No no, there’s no need for you to be an adventurer now, is there? You can have an easy life living off of the money from the recipes.」

I want you to be a housewife.

Didn’t you play around for ten years?

There’s no way you can get a job and work.

……

For a moment, my mind plunged into darkness as my husband’s words resonated through my head.

「Even I can work. Even someone like me can become an adventurer!」

Rofas-san looked at me with concern.

「Um, I’m not saying you’re not suited to being an adventurer, Yuuri. I’m just saying you don’t have to suffer working as an adventurer.」

That’s not it. I wasn’t saying I wanted money or an easy life. What should I say to make him understand how I feel?

「Rofas-san.」

Bryce-kun faced Rofas-san.

「You’re an S-ranked adventurer, so haven’t you saved enough money to live out the rest of your life without working?」

Rofas-san did not affirm or deny Bryce-kun’s question. Based on his reaction, his answer was most likely a yes.

Not only was it likely, he might have more money than he could spend.

「In that case, why don’t you quit being an adventurer and have fun for the rest of your life? You wouldn’t have to deal with the troublesome quests the guild pushes onto you anymore.」

Rofas-san looked like he realized something after hearing what Bryce-kun said, and then bowed his head towards me.

「Sorry.」

He lowered his head so deeply his forehead almost reached the table.

「It was very rude of me to say that you don’t need to work as long as you had money.  Forgive me.」

「U-um, please lift your head.」

I understood that Rofas-san meant no harm.

I knew that working as an adventurer was not easy. There were many strict dungeon rules we had to follow in order to stay safe.

He was only trying to give me a suggestion that he thought was the best for me.

「I’ll trust in your judgement as an adventurer, Yuuri. I’ll leave the registering of the recipes and the release of it to you too…」

As an adventurer…

「Yes, that would be great. I’ll do my best so that I can call myself an adventurer with pride.」

I made fists with my hands to pump myself up.

「I’ll look after you, I promise. I will protect you, Yuuri.」

Excuse me?

What did he mean by that?

Was he saying that, as a veteran adventurer, he would look after me until I became a good adventurer?

「That’s true. If Yuuri-san went under the protection of an S-ranked adventurer like Rofas-san, she won’t be in much danger.」

「Eh? Danger?!」

I raised my voice in surprise.